6 Music - Music News

Vampire Weekend have described the sound of their forthcoming second album Contra as "nostalgic".

The Brooklyn band told 6 Music they have broadened their horizons for the follow up to their 2008 debut by pulling in samplers and pianos.

Organist and album producer Rostam Batmanglij said: "There is a sense of nostalgia that we're capturing on this record that creates a different feeling compared to the first album. There's a lot of layers musically and lyrically that conjure different emotions.

"There's a bunch of new sounds on this record too. There is more piano and I've got this little sampler from the 80s that you can sing into which takes your voice and maps it across the keyboard.

"I used it on the tracks Horchata and I Think Ur A Contra. It sounds like an angel choir."

Other tracks slated to appear on the record, which is out on 11 January 2010, include White Sky, Holiday, California English and Giving Up The Gun. 

"The pressure we put on ourselves when we were making this record was far greater than any pressure from the outside."
 
Rostam Batmangli from Vampire Weekend

The band said they put themselves under a lot of pressure in the studio to ensure Contra matches the success of their debut.

Batmanglij said: "It's kind of a cliché but the pressure we put on ourselves was far greater than any pressure from the outside to make a good second album because we're the ones who have to live with it ultimately."

Bassist Chris Baio added: "When we were making our first album we had no idea people would be interested in it.

"So to go into working on this second album knowing that there were people out there who are fans of our band and who wanted to hear what’d we come up with was inspiring and exciting."

The four-piece are also heading into Abbey Road studios to record a special session which could be released in the near future.

"Our label had this idea that we would go in there and jam some of the new songs live," said Batmanglij. "We're trying to bring in some of the instruments we used on the record like strings and marimba."

Vampire Weekend debuted a series of songs at London's King's College (15 October) last night.